Little Bitty Living

Oh boy. I have totally messed up my blog setup!! I’m letting this one go with minimal content and I’ll have to play around with it to try and get everything else back. Aaargh! All I was trying to do was find a way to put a house photo up at the top……

Hello everyone! Happy Height of Summer. I’m ready to be done with the temps in the 90’s but the good news is, Monsoon Season is finally here! I think. Last week we got thunderstorms (with or without rain) every afternoon. They cool everything off considerably, what a relief! I’ve never been a real big fan of rain but boy, this rain is welcome! And I’m sure my plants and trees really appreciate it too. This week, no rain. Drat! 

If it’s 94 outside, it’ll be 94 or 95 degrees inside the house. It’s pretty awful. I’m back to buying XL tee shirts at the thrift stores so I can cut the sleeves off and have lots of room for air to circulate! The size Mediums fit too close to my body. Of course I only wear the big ones around the house, not out in public.

I’ve hung up some 90% heat shade material over two of the front windows. It really does help with the amount of heat coming into the house, but it also makes it dark as a cave. I guess it’s worth it.

While moving some cement blocks around I discovered this darling little nest of blue eggs. I figured it was the little stripey lizards. I put a board over them. 

Then when I moved another block, there was two more eggs. They really needed to be moved, so I thought I’d just put them into the other nest. As soon as I picked one up I knew…..they’re not eggs at all, they’re juniper berries!! I don’t know why the lizards were saving them.

My veggie garden…..oh my. Critters got to the carrot tops, so I pulled those. I still have 6 or 7 carrots continuing to grow. The carrot containers gets put on the car hood every night. So far they’ve been safe there.

My little vegetable plants are all finally thriving! They all have baby fruits (so cute!) and I believe I’ve figured out how to protect them from critters. Most everything gets moved to the workbench every night and then back out into the sunny yard every morning. The one bell pepper plant is in a 5 gallon bucket that’s too heavy for me to move, so I made a cage of ¼” hardware cloth and every night I put a 30 gallon garbage bag over that and tie the bottom tightly to the bucket. So far so good with that. Of course any self-respecting mouse could eat right through that flimsy plastic bag, but I guess they don’t know that. 

I keep seeing baby praying mantises on the vegetable plants. They’re great for insect control! I saw one eating a house fly the other day, and I know they really like aphids too. They also eat beneficial insects like bees too, but I appreciate them taking care of my plants.

The big news…..I have refrigeration!! I’m using the Jackery 240 solar generator to power the electronics, and a friend helped me do the wiring, hook up the propane regulator & tanks and run the solar panel wires in. (OK, by that I mean he did it and I watched) I can’t tell you what a luxury it is to be able access my food right from inside the house!! WOW! I’m still not used to it. Several times in the past week I’ve thought about starting lunch or dinner and I memorize the list of what I need and head outside. Then I want to do a Happy Dance when I realize I don’t have to! 

I saw a bunch of Black-Eyed Susans along the roadside the other day and wanted some. I’m not sure if it’s legal to steal wildflowers from the roadside…?? But I was in a hurry to go grab some before anyone else came along. So I got some scissors out and went and cut 5 flowers, then quickly back to the car. (I’d say “ran” but my knees still aren’t THAT good) Then I found out, their stems are super-sticky and the flowers were full of ants, and even a small spider! EEEK!

I took them back outside and tried to bash all the live stuff off them. I had some alcohol wipes in the car and it didn’t even make a dent in that sticky junk on my hands. Nice. I’ll have to say, I really did enjoy seeing their cheery little faces once I debugged them and got my hands clean again. Until they started to shed pollen all over the place. It stains white melamine countertops, by the way. Hmmm. 

There’s repaving work on the only road to town, and very long waits to share the one-lane road. At first they tried doing the work at night but they had to quit because in the first week, they had three elk / vehicle accidents! 

The diet is still going well, though progress is slow. I was thinking about that today, I’ve never been on a diet for 19 months straight! I guess I really did make it a lifestyle change and not just a temporary diet. I think always before this, I was anxious to get to “the end of the diet” so I could start eating forbidden foods again. It’s not like that this time. Very odd! I honestly have no cravings for junk food, processed foods or sugar. I do use natural sweeteners like Monk Fruit and Stevia, so I still get some sweet taste. I read a book that was talking about a great hamburger and I suddenly wanted a cheeseburger in the worst way, but I found out that it was just as good to eat a cheeseburger dipped in unsweetened ketchup, mustard and dill relish and no bun. I tried to use a lettuce leaf as a bun but it was way too messy. I really thought as soon as I had a freezer I’d want to have some ice cream but even the “keto” ice cream has too many carbs and you only get to eat ⅕ of the pint! Not worth it, I decided.

Yesterday I thought I lost Roxie! I’ve been letting her go out on her own for the past month or so. I usually go out with her or watch from the doorway but yesterday I just plumb forgot she was outside. When I realized she wasn’t in the house, I went out and called and whistled and looked all around, no Roxie anywhere. I got in the car and went up the road a ways, no Roxie. I came back and looked all around again, and happened to think of looking under the house. There she was sound asleep, in a big hawg wallow she’d dug for herself. She’s always loved digging. I had to poke her with a stick to get her attention, and bribe her with food to come out. (She’s pretty much stone deaf now at age 13) Great, now she’ll be headed under the house all the time…..and getting filthy, oh how fun!